there were birds

As the years pass by,

life gets harder and easier to bear.

What was known while youth still had its bloom~

known with absolute conviction~

is found, now, to be vastly untrue.

Or maybe true~

but only from an angle not willingly seen

when slick confidence ruled the day.

There were birds in the shine

and vigor of earlier times.

They were closely observed,

fascinated over,

and bore messages from lesser gods.

Those messages were clear.

Until they were not.

The birds became pale against leaf and sky

until they all but vanished from view.

When life got harder.

Now, it is harder, yet easier.

The birds are back.

Clusters of sparrows,
arrows of swallows.

Cardinals and robins

out-doing each other in song.

Crows, speaking in tongues.

A green heron in flight,

woodpeckers drumming and diving.

All are seen from the less-sure angle,
the one that takes time and patience to glean.

Their habits are recalled,

their feathers known.

Yet, the only message heard

in the hard and the easy is

live life from the earth and the sky.